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Cocaine Pollution Alters Salmon Behavior in the Wild, Study Reveals
Benzoylecgonine drove juvenile salmon to travel up to 1.9 times farther per week, raising concerns that metabolite-focused pollution risks are underestimated.
- On Monday, Current Biology published research showing Juvenile Atlantic salmon exposed to benzoylecgonine swam significantly farther than unexposed fish in a lake in Sweden.
- Scientists tracked 105 juvenile Atlantic salmon over eight weeks in a Lake, dividing them into three groups of 35 to test cocaine and benzoylecgonine exposure against a control group.
- Benzoylecgonine caused fish to swim up to 1.9 times farther per week, with a 60 percent increase in dispersion reaching up to 12.3 kilometers compared to control groups.
- Jack Brand of the Swedish University noted that risk assessments typically focus on parent compounds, overlooking that benzoylecgonine is often more common and biologically active in waterways.
- Marcus Michelangeli of the Australian rivers Institute warned that altered movement could change predator encounters and foraging, though researchers emphasized findings pose no risk to people consuming fish.
61 Articles
61 Articles
Fish in the drug rush are particularly active. This is shown by a recent study from Sweden. Especially coke residues in the water can help young salmon to achieve maximum performance. This could affect entire ecosystems, warn experts. For a long time, residues of cocaine have been detected in wastewater. This can become a problem for animals, as researchers from Sweden have now found out. The study, which appeared in the journal "Current Biology…
This Is What Happens When Salmon Get All Coked Up
Cocaine isn't just a human problem—it may be quietly rewiring salmon, too. A new study suggests that traces of the drug and its main by-product, flushed into rivers and lakes, can build up in young Atlantic salmon and alter how they move around. Swedish researchers implanted slow-release doses of...
Researchers found that juvenile salmon swim up to fifty percent further after contact with dissolved cocaine than the control group.
Drug residues in water affect salmon behavior, a new study from SLU shows. Salmon that have ingested cocaine swim more – and spread over larger areas. – If you eat a fish from a river or stream in Sweden today, there will be illegal drugs in it, says Tomas Brodin, professor at SLU.
Cocaine residues that enter rivers and lakes with wastewater are changing the behavior of salmon, according to research by scientists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, which was reported by The Guardian. According to experts, no one can yet accurately predict the consequences for fish populations.
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